Thursday, December 13, 2012

ANCESTORHUNT.COM

ou just never know what you will find online. Some time ago
I was Googling one of my surnames—Bowles—and discovered by accident the website Ancestor Hunt (www.ancestorhunt.com). Here I found on
the Warren/Wooster Family Bible page (http://www.ancestorhunt.com/warren-wooster-genealogy-bible.htm)
several entries for Bowles, Ford, Scripture and Taylor, four of my family
surnames. (1) (Clarissa Wooster was the third wife of George P. Bowles, my second
great grand uncle.) As an added touch,
there was a transcription of the entries concerning the Bowles’ family in the
1880 U.S. Federal Census for Westmoreland, Oneida County, New York.

On the Warren Bible Records and Genealogy Page (http://www.ancestorhunt.com/warren-wooster-bible-records.htm),
I was able to see actual pages from the Warren/Wooster family bible. There was
also a copy of the obituary of Mrs. Mark Scripture, my 2nd great
grandmother, and two handwritten sheets of notebook paper (http://www.ancestorhunt.com/images/Family%20Record.jpg)
containing birth dates, marriage
information, dates of death and dates that my ancestors joined the Presbyterian
Church of Vernon Center, New York. What a windfall! On this same page, I learned from a news
article how Alonzo DeLand, my 1st cousin 3X removed, drowned while
swimming away from a burning boat in Syracuse, New York. (2)

This is a good example of how you can find valuable information
on your ancestors by looking at records of what you might think are unrelated
folks-- in this case a third wife of a second great grand uncle. I have found
this to be the case in surname histories in particular.